Maddie's Insights: Emergency Fostering During the Pandemic: Takeaways for a post-pandemic world

As Director of Outreach and Research for Maddie's Fund®, Dr. Sheila Segurson's goal is to develop and support research that increases pet adoptions from rescue groups and shelters and improves pet well-being. She relies upon her background working in and with animal shelters, pet foster care programs, and veterinary medicine to lead Maddie's Fund research efforts.

After graduating from UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Segurson worked as a general practice/emergency/shelter veterinarian at pet hospitals in California. Then, in 2005, Sheila graduated from Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program at UC Davis, becoming the first in the nation to complete a three-year, post-graduate behavior specialty training program with an emphasis on shelter animals and shelter behavior programs. She worked for several pet welfare organizations, including UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program, The Sacramento SPCA, and the Animal Rescue League of Boston, where she developed and implemented enrichment/behavior modification programs.

Dr. Lisa Gunter is an Assistant Professor of Animal Behavior & Welfare at Virginia Tech in the School of Animal Sciences and directs the Center for Applied Animal Research & Education (CAARE). Before beginning her graduate studies, she worked for nearly a decade with dogs in animal shelters and owners and their dogs. Over her academic career, she has investigated the breed labeling of shelter dogs, their breed heritage, shelter housing and social interactions with other dogs and people, weeklong fostering, temporary stays in foster homes, short-term outings, behavioral indicators of welfare, post-adoption interventions focused on owner retention, canine adoption and relinquishment in the animal shelter - and more recently, fostering during the pandemic and safety net programs aimed at keeping people and their pets together. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Coastal Carolina University and the Maddie’s Fund Research Fellow at Arizona State University and managed the ASU/VT Maddie’s Nationwide Fostering Study. Lisa earned her PhD and MA degrees in the behavioral neuroscience and comparative psychology program at Arizona State University in the Canine Science Collaboratory.